How do I quickly load Calculator in Windows 10?

There are roughly 732 ways to load the Calculator in Windows 10, but very few qualify for having the word “quickly” before them. So, here are the six quickest ways I know to launch Calculator.

Without loading Calculator at all…

Launch Calculator from within the Start menu

Counter-intuitive, perhaps, but if you press the Windows key and then type your calculation (say, 10 x 5) then a basic “Bing” version of the Calculator will be launched within the Start menu.

Pin Calculator to your taskbar

Pinning programs: boring, but it works

This feels like a cheat, but once you load Calculator you can always pin it to the Taskbar (right-click on the Calculator icon and then select the “Pin to taskbar” option). That’s no fun for those of us who like using the keyboard, but I have good news…

Typing “calc” into the Windows 10 search box

Press the Windows key, type “calc” and then Enter – good things will happen

Typing the first few letters of any program into the Windows 10 search box will make it appear at the top of the search shortlist, and pressing Enter will then launch it. You can use this to shave precious microseconds by typing “calc” (without the quote marks) into the Windows 10 search box and pressing Enter.

If you don’t want to take your fingers off the keyboard, press the Windows key plus R at the same time. This launches the Run command. Type “calc” and hit Enter and the Calculator will load.

Pressing a button on your keyboard

Most desktop keyboards have a shortcut for the Calculator built in. Hunt it out and commit it to muscle memory. If you don’t have such a shortcut, fear not – see the next tip.

Creating a shortcut

There are various programs (eg WinHotKey) you can download to help create shortcuts, but Windows 10 has this option built in. The simplest way I’ve found is to create a new File Explorer window (Windows + E) and then type “shell:AppsFolder” into the location bar.

All the installed apps will miraculously appear, as below.

You can view all installed apps by typing a command into File Explorer

Click “Yes” when the prompt above appears, and then find the icon on your Windows 10 Desktop. Right-click it again and click on the Shortcut tab at the top. You’ll see a screenshot like the one below.

Place the cursor in the “Shortcut key” box, where it currently says “None”, and then press your chosen key combination. The internet agrees that Ctrl plus Shift plus C makes sense. You’ll then see this:

Press OK and, from now on, pressing Ctrl+Shift+C should launch the Calculator.

Complicated? Yep. But it will eventually save time. Note, though, that it’s a flakier method than some of the other methods. You can’t delete the icon, but you can hide it by pressing Hidden on the General tab of its Properties (right-click the Calculator icon on the Desktop to access this).

Use mouse gestures (if you own a Logitech mouse)

If you own a Logitech mouse then you can use its software to create a gesture that will launch Calculator. See my review of the Logitech MK850 Performance.

If you have your own favourite way to launch Calculator, do let me know in the Comments below. Especially if you use voice commands in Cortana…